Unmanned aircraft or air vehicles (UAVs) provide enhanced and economical access to areas where manned flight operations are unacceptably costly and/or dangerous. For example, unmanned aircraft outfitted with remotely controlled cameras can perform a wide variety of surveillance missions, including spotting schools of fish for the fisheries industry, monitoring weather conditions, providing border patrols for national governments, and providing military surveillance before, during and/or after military operations.
Unmanned aircraft typically communicate with ground stations via radio frequency transmitters and receivers. Accordingly, conventional unmanned aircraft include both transmitting and receiving antennae. One drawback with some conventional unmanned aircraft antennae is that they may lack adequate power for long-range communication. Another drawback is that some existing antennae may not integrate well with the aircraft aerodynamics. For example, some conventional antennae extend outwardly away from the aircraft fuselage or wing surfaces, increasing the overall drag of the aircraft and the risk of damage to the antennae. Still another drawback is that the connections between the circuitry attached to the antennae and the antennae themselves may in some cases be unreliable or vulnerable to damage. If the antennae or their connections fail, the aircraft can lose communication with the ground station and can accordingly fly in an uncontrolled manner and/or fail to receive and/or transmit data.